Several trends are altering the use of enterprise applications. For example, enterprises are moving to hosting applications in private and public clouds as opposed to enterprise data centers. Enterprises are also increasingly using applications provided by other companies, which are generically grouped under SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) and are not hosted in an enterprise-data center. In another example, enterprises are migrating from large Information Technology (IT) supported branches to smaller branches. These smaller branches can utilize remote IT management strategies.
These trends have combined to alter application's network paths and/or the quality of service (QoS) of these paths. With enterprise data-center applications, the large IT branches can lease multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) lines. MPLS can be mechanism in communications networks that directs data from one network node to the next node based on short path labels rather than long network addresses, thus avoiding complex lookups in a routing table. MPLS lines can be associated with a known level of QoS that provides a deterministic application access experience and/or application availability. Applications are moving to the cloud where they are deployed either in the public and/or hybrid cloud. Enterprise branches access these applications via the public Internet. Access to these applications in such cases may be hampered by the ‘best effort’ nature of access as opposed to having a known QoS level. Additionally, a smaller branch may also utilize computing devices that are relatively easy to deploy and/or remotely manage in the event no on-site IT staff is available.